IB VISUAL ARTS 2023

sebastian berryman

The central intention of this exhibition is to address the theme of duality in various manners, both conceptual and visual, and challenge the viewer’s own values and beliefs. My exhibition is predominantly drawing based, as my preference for artmaking has always been the quick creation of imagery based upon observation of the things around me, in particular characteristics of people.

Upon entering the exhibition space, the audience are met with a multitude of bright, large eyes that draws their attention with its strong visual impact. As the viewer moves through the exhibit, the artworks are displayed in a manner so that the first few artworks challenge immediately with deeper questions that cause one to pause and ponder, which primes to view the following artworks with a similar level of thought. The viewer is first questioned with “what does it mean to be human?” followed by increasingly nuanced aspects of the human experience.

The artworks I have selected are those that address duality in both a visual and conceptual way. I aimed to have clear visual duality in all my works, predominantly through high contrast and highly saturated colours.

I have been strongly influenced by Japanese manga, which has greatly influenced my method of the presentation of my ideas in a narrative format where the viewer led through sequentially. This is exemplified in Man’s Inhumanity and To be human, where the concepts of humanity and inhumanity are addressed through the narrative of an anthropomorphic bird character experiencing the greed and more unpleasant aspects of human nature 

In Time in flux and Moving forward, cast figures and accompanying stop-motion animation, the ideas of life and death, love and pain are visualised. My intent was to show the journey of life and process of ageing visually, through a strong contrast of colours. The style of the figures and animation are cohesive with the narrative structure of my work, presented on a loop to allude to the cyclical nature of life, with the figures emerging from their moulds to symbolise birth and rebirth. I also implemented the motif of a heart, and through its deterioration aimed to depict the process of the emotional suffering that can arise as a part of life and the human experience.

Aibrubus was inspired by the work of Patricia Piccinini. I visited her studio and witnessed the creation of her works, many of which address ideas surrounding the artificial and natural. I created a work that is built around the inversion of the artificial/natural binary, and in said inversion challenge the viewer to consider what is truly natural or unnatural, and whether this judgement is one that is heavily biased by our human perspective. What started as a simple concept sketch ended up becoming a central part of the exhibition, with strong visceral qualities of fleshy textures, unsettling eyeballs and grotesque fingernails.

After investigating the work and ideas of Takashi Murakami, my drawings Irrational fear, Day by day and Four fun, respond to the concept of high and low art. This refers to the established cultural idea that art forms which are readily accessible to the masses are of lesser value, for example manga or comic books where stylised imagery makes the “artworks” more easily appreciated. My drawings continue the narrative approach I have taken, and challenge the concept of high and low art by their display in a gallery setting.

Through accessible imagery and relatable ideas, I wanted the viewer to experience this exhibition as if being exposed to pages of a book, with elements of both the mundane and supernatural, inviting the viewer to my vision of the world and the human experience.